How To Make An eBook Cover

Last week I wrote a review of 6 Hour eBook by Mialei, which included my experience of actually using it to write an eBook (unlike many who are selling it LOL). I promised to show my results on that post after my son did the final proof-read for me.

Well, Russ had a “water emergency”, and I had a PC emergency for him to fix for me, so proof-reading my eBook wasn’t top of any-one’s list, but all sorted now – and finishing my eBook has risen to the top again.

However, what DID delay me most beyond the 6 Hours wasn’t actually writing the book, it was the bit where I had to make an eBook cover. Regular readers may remember that I’m rather graphically challenged!

Ways To Make An eBook Cover

The options I had were:

Use free tools such as Paint or Gimp

Find free software

Use someone on Fiverr (or any of the other freelance sites)

Buy software to make an eBook cover

I have had experience of all four, so here’s a quick review about each of my options to create an eCover for my book.

Use Paint or Gimp

I spent ages playing with these excellent free tools and after much cursing and tearing out of hair…. I had produced a thoroughly unprofessional looking eBook Cover! It went straight to the bin 🙂

For this result, the tradesman (me) should not blame the tools. I know there are people who can obtain excellent results with these and other free tools.

They must be very patient and naturally talented. Often they’re called Graphic Designers who don’t work for free. I couldn’t even manage a “flat” eBook cover file that looked half way decent, let alone skew it and make the pages flap open!

Free Software To Make An eBook Cover

When I produced my first eBook some time ago it was easy to find a great tool that helped me make a free eBook cover: http://www.myecovermaker.com/ Having used this software in the past (as a freebie) I went back to look at it again.

6 of the 120+ ecover templates are indeed free to a “Casual User”. The eBook cover you create will be water-marked, and if you choose to download it as a casual user you can have the watermark removed for $4.95. This was actually how I created my very first eBook cover, and – at the time – I was pleased with the result.

I have forgotten, and it wasn’t clear from their current sales page, how long the “casual user design” would stay in your account should you want to amend it. It was well over a year ago that I used the software, so I tried to login to access my design to see if I could amend it and either the system had lost me – or I had lost the email I used to sign in with. So for whatever reason I can’t change my eBook cover now. I’m sure that if it were really urgent I could contact the company, but it’s not, so it wouldn’t be fair to hassle them over something I only paid $4.95 for, especially now that I have a better option, below, to create covers really quickly.

Of course, for a product of this undoubted quality, myecovermaker.com would be crazy if they didn’t have an upgrade offer 🙂 You can upgrade to have full access to the tools for unlimited access and downloads at $14.95 per month or $99 per year.

If you are 100% sure that you will never want to create another eBook cover, and never want to amend the one you are creating, the $4.95 option is good value for a basic cover, and if you take the upgrade there are many more options available.

Use A Freelancer (e.g. Fiverr, eLance, etc)

There are so many freelancers who will produce an eBook cover for you that I can’t possibly review the ever-changing population. But here are a few of my experiences from using Fiverr (the only freelance site I have used for graphics production jobs).

There are always hundreds to choose from – which can be a “pro” or a “con” if you just want the job done quickly! It may take you a while to find someone who delivers the results you want, but this can certainly be a cost-effective alternative.

However, while $5 is the price for the basic service, you will quickly find that if you want anything in addition – like access to the product to amend it later – many people will offer that as a “gig extra” for another $5, $10 or whatever. So be sure you know exactly what you’re ordering.

My most recent experience was earlier this year. I contacted one freelancer for some graphics I needed doing and asked him to clarify that what I wanted was actually within the scope of what he was offering. It seemed a little “too good to be true”, so I wanted to check. He “replied” by just copying back the offer to me – dead helpful.

Anyway, I went ahead and placed my order and waited the required time. Five days from memory (faster delivery was an upgrade offer). When “time was up” I went in to check for my delivery and found he had just cancelled my order – no reason given. I contacted him to ask why, no reply.

Well, you get what you pay for, and because the order was cancelled it didn’t even cost me anything…. except a 5 day delay to my project and some irritation.

I’m sure this guy was an exception to the normal service – although he was a higher level seller and had good feedback. But, probably unfairly, it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about Fiverr freelancers. Funnily enough I have just “plucked up courage” to try them again – so I’ll report back again, with hopefully a better experience.

Using Fiverr my warning is to watch out for “gig extras” and be sure you will be able to amend your own designs. Despite my unsatisfactory experience Fiverr is (probably!) still a good alternative for the budget challenged user to hire a good graphic designer once you’ve found someone whose work you like.

Buy software to make an eBook cover

Readers of last week’s post may remember that one of the up-sells for The 6 Hour Ebook was for eCover Rhapsody, software to create your eBook cover.

After my experiences with the previous ways of making eBook covers, I came to this software with relief. I found it the the most cost-effective and best value of all. Most importantly – to ME – it was the best use of my very scarce time.

Here is a version of my eBook cover, and while it may not be YOUR choice of design, it took me just a few minutes to produce and amend, even while learning to use the software.

As a finished cover it looks a whole lot better than any of the attempts above that took me far longer.

This is based on just ONE of a huge number of templates I could have used for my starter. I am impressed.

The eCover Rhapsody software offers amazing value for money and time spent.

Yes, there is a (very low) one time cost, but if you ever want to create an eBook cover again, or amend an original one, you can do so. Here’s a quick list of the features I liked best:

100+ backgrounds to apply to……

…..loads of ready prepared eBook cover templates

227 built in graphics

1 click 3D conversion

Point and Click edit makes it fast and intuitive to try different effects until you settle on your preferred design

Rather than me waffling on about the features of the eBook Cover creator, here’s a quick (not even 3 minutes) video to show you what you can do.

(For extra value – at the time of writing – the eBook cover software actually costs a few dollars less as an up-sell to the 6Hour eBook training, which is something you will surely benefit from if you are one of the marketers already profiting in the $7 Billion eBook Industry.)

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Joy

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Being a bit of a control freak I prefer to do all this myself instead of waiting for someone else to disappoint me:-) And even if “someone else” does a good job, that’s usually when I find “just one more typo” that I HAVE to fix.

My approach is to use “Write”, the free word processor from OpenOffice.org and output my eBook directly into PDF form using Write. I find it just as good as Word, but free. That way I can revise the book and PDF as many times as I need to.

In “Write” you can hyperlink your affiliate links just as you would in Word (or WordPress). However, just in case someone prints out my eBook (and therefore couldn’t click) I also type out the links “long-hand”. Download my sample eBook from the post and you’ll see what I mean. Maybe I’m the only person left in the world who prints out eBooks, but…..

To be honest having had an ebook cover done on Fiverr (in addition to my other experiences above) I really wouldn’t bother again now that I have found the eCover Rhapsody software I’ve reviewed above.

When I had an eCover done on Fiverr I had to pay extra to get the 2-d book turned into 3-d, and I would have liked to tweak the 2-d again, but too embarrassed to ask for even more revisions. If I’d done it using the software I could have reloaded and tweaked as often as I wished. (This may be good or bad!)

I’ve never used freelance.co, but my feeling is if I’m paying anything I’d rather pay for a tool I can use over and over again.

It honestly was really simple to use. I’m not technically minded at all. I even struggle with Paint!

Also, Mialei is giving a good long guarantee, so why not give the software a try and if you’re not delighted ask for a refund.

Glad to have given you some options to think about, Mark, let me know what you decide to do, or if you have any more questions.

Sorry to hear you’ve had such a bad experience with Fiverr. That’s where I go to get all of my eBook covers done at the moment. I use the same seller every time and have had nothing but pleasant experiences.

For really basic covers I use Canva, but that’s rare as I am a horrible, horrible designer.

I may have to look into that software. I do run a small Kindle publishing business and those $5 covers do add up over time.

Do you know if the software works with CreateSpace’s physical books? I could definitely see myself having the front designed by somebody on Fiverr, and create the spine and back cover myself. The seller I work with charges $20 for CreateSpace books so even designing just two of those myself would save me money.

I smiled at your comments about your design skills – because they more or less reflect my own! That’s why I like eRhapsody so much, because it gives you a variety of tasteful templates to work on from the outset.

I’m not sure of the answer to your question, but I’ll ask Mailei if she will give you an answer. I’m all in favour of saving money too.

Thanks so much for introducing eCover Rhapsody. I haven’t done an ebook yet, mostly I do digital products. But a book is on my list.

I have one person I found on Fiverr that does some graphics for me and he is professional, sends me my stuff the next day and is so easy to work with. Guess I have good Fiverr Karma.

But for a book, it would be a different story. I would want the cover to reflect the content of the book. I just put ECover Rhapsody on my Evernote. When I do write a book, at least I won’t have difficulty looking for a cover thanks to you.

I’m glad that you have found a good person to work with regularly on Fiverr, I’m sure I was just unlucky with this gent, and it’s just a matter of waiting until you find someone you CAN work with – as you have done.

To give it another go, I have ordered some banner graphics from a completely different seller and I’m hopeful that this will be a far better experience. I’ll certainly be reporting back here and will be happy if I can report a successful transaction.

To avoid any confusion, before I found eBook Rhapsody eCover Maker software, I DID have the cover of my own product produced on Fiverr and was happy with that gig. It was a completely different seller who let me down so badly just recently.

I appreciate you “marking” the software, and if you DO buy it, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Wow. Great post. I enjoyed it. Your tips were helpful to me and I think will help bloggers to finish off their ebook. However before producing an ebook someone must become a good writer otherwise people would not enjoy reading it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

It’s been that long since I produced anything, I haven’t even thought of covers. Well ok, I did update my freebie and did a little flat image using drag and drop Logo Creator.

Years ago (it does seem like years too, before My Local Business Online) I think I lived in myecovermaker.com – great to hear it’s still an option!

Thanks for outlining the options and the cool software Joy – I’ve no creative skills what so ever, so options are always good. I’ve bookmarked your page so if I do get around to new guides and ebooks I shall click through your link 🙂

I’ve also done flat images in the past and even so my creative skills are completely zero. The eCover Creator is especially good for people like that because there are ready-made templates we can build on, and tailor to our own needs – while retaining the creatvity that someone has already applied for us.

I think this software will pay for itself many times over with savings, next time you need it for new material.

Hi Joy, very useful post, and I’ve picked up some ideas here for sure, because I’ve only ever used myecovermaker to finalise my eBook.

I’ve not used Gimp or Paint, but I have used another free software called Photoscape, it’s amazing and brilliant for those sort of things.

Right now I’m using Affinity Designer for the Mac to create the design for my cover art, although the software itself is a bit of an overkill for that kind of thing, and then I export my PNG image over to myecovermaker, and for $4.95 it’s not that bad of a deal, unless you’re like me 3 days later you decide, nope! you want to try a different cover lol.

I will check out that Ecvoer Rhapsody you mentioned, I’ve not come across that one before, but it doesn’t sound like a bad deal for $23, just in time as well because I’m launching my new eBook early next month.

Thanks for telling me about Photoscape – not one I’d heard about! I’m afraid Gimp was too complicated for me:-(

Yes – myecovermaker IS a good deal at $4.95, but I was like you and wanted to make changes later on – which is the beauty of eCover Rhapsody, because you can change it as many times as you like. Also the ready made templates save you a lot of time getting started with a basic layout.

Look forward to seeing your new eBook and hope you’ll make a great cover, with as little stress as possible.

I enjoyed reading your thoughts on eCover Rhapsody because I have it. I got it as the upsell to Mialei’s 6 Hour eBook creator. I haven’t looked at it yet ‘cus I’m not there yet. Another few weeks and I will need it though. Now I know I have the right tools when the time comes

I was just thinking I need to send Mark over here because he’s looking for this very thing and then I see he’s already commented so good.

I used to have a program on my computer but when I got this computer I have now it wouldn’t let me load it and that infuriated me. I paid for the software but the guy that I bought it from never responded so another lesson learned.

I’m not good at graphics myself and I tried myecovermaker program but didn’t really care for it. It didn’t let you have a lot of options and with what I needed to use it for I didn’t want to pay a monthly charge.

After that I just headed to Fiverr and let them create one for me since I never know what I want anyway. They do that all the time so are much more creative. I think though whatever way anyone goes it would be smart to at least have all your options.

Like you, I couldn’t justify the monthly charge for myecovermaker and, yes, the other options didn’t allow me a lot of scope.

I’ve used Fiverr for covers in the past, but I’m not good at getting my “specification” right first time, so I do appreciate the fact that with eCover Rhapsody I can tweak to my heart’s content – also the fact that, with its templates, the creative part has already been done and all I need do is choose a tmeplate and “fill in the blanks”.

I have recently had a better experience with Fiverr than when I wrote this post – and will write about that soon – but even so, the problem remains that I change my mind too often, so I like to have a saved version that I can go back to.

I’m glad Fiverr is working well for you. I am happier with it after my latest experience, that I was when I originally wrote this post.

I have made several ebooks and ebook cover is an important part of it. It is the cover with which the first reader is attracted towards it. There are thousands of tools and websites online which promise to be create you a free cover but most of them are either fake or paid.
I mostly allow my graphic designer to make covers in different shapes and sizes,and when he is not there I myself hit photoshop.
But for a person who doesn’t know quite much can use free e-book cover maker.
Also, gimp is a nice alternative to photoshop.
Thanks for sharing Joy.

It’s great that you have a graphic designer and earning enough to justify paying one. You’ve obviously worked hard to get to that stage. However I know there are a lot of bloggers out there who prefer to make a one-off payment that lets them make an eBook cover as many times as they want.

I tried gimp, but coupled with my impatience(!) and my total lack of design skills, I didn’t get very far with it. But that’s ME. I know that many skillful bloggers use it very successfully and, once you’ve mastered it, I understand it’s an excellent tool.

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